UpstateJan

Happy birthday Lois, 29 again this year?

3 hours ago, mysty said:

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Stay safe all!   Look for the joy!

Jeremy's famous for tossing lonely socks ... I'll give him this thought before Friday (laundry day).   We always tossed them in a "rag bag" to be used for clean-ups, or until their sole-mate showed up.   We were not a paper towel household.

10 hours ago, mysty said:

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny (and a possible answer to the mystery of the run on toilet paper).....

 

 

Have a great day all!

Instead of Zombie Apocalyse, it's the Mummy Apocalyse, and they're here for our toilet paper!

37 minutes ago, spinnaker2 said:

Hearing the news that a pax on JetBlue tested positive and was told before the flight left  and then he stayed on the flight!!! Exposing all those pax aboard on way to Palm Beach Airport..

 

 

Is this person unbelievably selfish or in denial or ????

Perhaps he didn't breathe the entire time?  People just don't think sometimes, stuck in the "it can't happen to me".

31 minutes ago, spinnaker2 said:

Jan

Please share your recipe for the egg rolls!

Thinking I could use instant pot and then air fryer?

 

 

1lb ground chicken, pork, or turkey

16oz coleslaw mix - or shredded cabbage

5 cloves of garlic minced

1tsp ground ginger

1/4 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup soy sauce (I use Braggs amino)

1 tbsp seasame oil (or some other oil)

Mix the stock, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and oil, set aside.

Open Instantpot, and put on saute.  Add ground meat and cook, stirring occassionally for 5 minutes (until cooked thru)

Add coleslaw mix and stock mix to the Instantpot

Close Instantpot, set manual for 0 minutes

When the timer beeps, quick release and stir well.

You can top with chopped green onions, serve in a bowl, or over rice, or put in eggroll wrappers and attempt the airfryer route.

The flavors were really perfect and honestly were fantastic as is, without any other condiments.  I had a small container of Quinoa in the freezer, so I pulled that out, and spooned this over it.   Very healthy meal, quick and easy, and unfortunately there were no leftovers.  I'm going to add to our regular week rotation, along with salmon, and a cobb salad.   It sure does make grocery shopping a lot easier.

36 minutes ago, Lois R said:

I have officially cancelled both my TA and my River cruise.  I just kept thinking April 6th is right around the corner

and at this point  it is the best thing for me to do.    I have to say, I am disappointed....after retirement, the surgery,

the treatments....I was ready to go away.  Oh well.   I can tell you, at least I have 2 large credits for future cruises

so that is always a good thing

Sorry to hear that, but I agree it was in your best interest with radiation and all.  Hopefully this all blows over quickly, and the cruiselines/travel industry will be having some serious deals when there is an "all clear".

Thanks JP!  We are planning on heading to Vancouver for an Alaskan cruise and then Canadian Rockies.  Celebrity is offering a very liberal cancellation/postponement option.  Between the two flights, cruiseship, train, hotels, and two flights home, there's a whole lot of exposure possibilty.  But that being said, lots can happen between now and May 16th on the containment front.  In light of my medical excitement in December, I think Jeremy is just being overly cautious, but then again what do I know, I'm still slightly scrambled.

On 3/8/2020 at 7:17 PM, jpalbny said:

 

Well, that's a fine piece of news. We both have EDLs. We got them a few years ago back, ahead of time, to prepare for the issue about Real ID and flying domestically. Didn't realize that you could use them to cross into Canada. Now, will I remember that in another 10 years, when we're renewing passports again? 😉

 

Glad I could help.  Once in awhile, I know stuff! 😆   So, we're having "the talk" this weekend about whether we're going to cancel our upcoming cruise/landtour in May due to COVID.   Any guidance?

On 3/10/2020 at 9:09 PM, spinnaker2 said:

Ok.

I just want a lot of ground up chicken on lettuce leaves.

Or those labne things

😋

Oh, I made "eggrolls" in the instantpot with ground chicken, they were amazing!!!!   Think the insides of eggrolls, without the wrapper and frying (which is my personal favorite part of eggrolls).  

Mysty, thank you for the funnies, they are so appreciated!   BTW, I need to get Jeremy some Vodka, he spent way too much time cleaning this weekend.

On 3/2/2020 at 7:39 PM, spinnaker2 said:

Wishing I could go anywhere!

Tore some stuff in my knee including meniscus.

Just watching others go and do.

Hoping no surgery which I understand would have been done immediately if I was 40.

 

But you are only 41!

On 3/2/2020 at 2:08 PM, jpalbny said:

 

I really want to go to Montreal some time this spring but currently our passports  are  at the State Department, getting renewed, and have been there for the past four weeks. You'd think I wouldn't miss them for a few weeks, but I do! Hopefully they will get back to us soon, because we will need to apply for the Chinese visa if we're doing that trip.

 

All for now.

Enhanced Drivers' License!  I never take my passport when we go north to visit the inlaws.   I'm in the same boat with you for the passport.  Mine went for renewal on 2/8 via USPS Priority Mail - it was supposed to arrive on 2/12, and it went missing.  Well, the tracking went to "on way to next location".   Happily, the renewal check cleared my bank on 2/18, and after a lovely 45minutes on hold, I had confirmation that they indeed did receive my passport, and I should see it in 6 weeks.  That means in 2 more weeks I can start panicking again.  Our trip in May requires a passport because it is via airplane, in and out of Canada.

Good luck in getting your passport back in time, and I hope you are able to make your June trip.  We enjoyed our few days in Hong Kong in 2017.

7 hours ago, mysty said:

Correction.....we board May 25.  OOOOPS on my part.

I'm jealous of Mysty (and Myster) as well as mw8811!   I loved Iceland.   Alas, I will be attacking the Canadian Rockies while you are storming the shores of Amsterdam.  Last time we took a cruise out of Amsterdam, we flew in a day early and did Delft & Den Haagen, what a joy!  We had a walking tour guide for The Haag, and he was wonderful - walked us to the place my family lived in the 1600s.   Obviously, there was a much newer house standing there, but still.  Its so nice when they go the extra to make it a memorable experience.

2 hours ago, lincslady said:

Hi all

 

It has put things a bit into perspective for me reading of others' troubles.  Two years ago I broke right femur, leading to what is called a dynamic hip screw- metal plate on to bone, with screws into existing hip.  Took some time to get mobile and driving.  DH is 92 and frail, so not a lot of help sadly.  Last Mon. I fell again, on the snowy ground outside door putting stuff into bin, and could not get up.  Eventually shuffled into house on behind!  Much pain, worry about femur.  Next day, phone to GP sent me to Lincoln hospital by ambulance with DH who should not be alone.  Long day, but X-ray showed no further bone or plate problem, thank heavens. Now struggling round on frame again, but coping with basics, and muscles are beginning to heal up.  DD came to pick us  up - she lives over 3 hours away, and stayed a couple of nights.   As they rightly say, old age is not for cissies!

 

Anyway, got round to putting a bit of makeup on today for delivery of rise and recline chair (for him, but also me at present), so must be improving.  

 

Sorry about going on, but it does you good to get things off your chest to people!

 

And I am glad I am not on Diamond Princess!

 

Lola

Sorry about the fall Lola, that has to be frightening with everything else going on.  Glad it wasn't a break, and that you DD was able to help out.  Nope, old age is not for the faint of heart.  I am aiming to get to that stage!

I took one princess cruise, and it went down as the worst cruise experience I've had.  Needless to say, yes it couldl have been worse, it could have been the floating plague ship that Diamond is turning out to be.  My heart goes out to everyone that was/is on that ship, on what should have been a fantastic vacation.  You just never know .....

17 hours ago, frantic36 said:

 

Jan, your beautiful hair. As a retired neuro nurse I am so glad you are well and home. Those aneurysms are scary stuff. 

 

With regards to Buchart gardens they are truly beautiful. We splurged and took an early flight over from Vancouver in July 2017. We then went straight to the gardens. I am so glad we did this as we had almost 1.5 hours with the gardens fairly empty before the tour buses arrived. We were there almost four hours but we love plants and there was so much to see. 

 

We then headed back to town for lunch and a wander. We didn't hire a car as we aren't comfortable driving on the opposite side of the road but I have heard there are many amazing places to visit with a hire car on Victoria Island.

 

Banff is lovely to walk around the town and we enjoyed taking the Banff Gondola and doing the mountain top boardwalk. Again we found going when it opened best to avoid crowds. The interpretive centre was interesting and coming from Perth which has many flat land and hills, the mountains were just so beautiful.

 

Heal well Jan.

 

Julie

Thanks Julie, every day is a bit better.  As far as the hair, we're hoping it comes back in black and less curly, but I'll take what I get.  Right now, it's black & white, and standing straight up, much like a skunk.   It's growing so fast, it'll be ponytail-able by the end of summer.   The only down side of having my head shaved was ....I realized on New Years day that I needed to renew my passport before our May trip.  Hey, I'm 55, a crew cut photo is not the worse thing to happen in my life.  Honestly, the photo taken was one of the best pics taken of me, so count my blessings - good photo, and I can go on my trip.  Queen of positivity here.  

We have an all day in Victoria, and I believe we have some time in town.  And yes, we're doing the Banff Gondola for sure.  Thank you so much for the tips, putting them on the list.

20 hours ago, Stumblefoot said:

Bug spray.  Lots and lots of bug spray.  The further north you go, the larger the swarms become, specially when visiting Jasper.

Gotta love black flies!

22 hours ago, mysty said:

How much time do you have in the Victoria area Jan?  There is a gorgeous spot on Vancouver Island...Tofino.  It is on the west coast about 4 hours from Victoria by car.

 

 

That looks stunning.  I'm writing that down as a possibility - we'll figure out what we can do in about a month - have to get thru taxes first.  Plan vacation final details 1 1/2 months prior to departure - according to the husband.  Right now, I can dream, although I can't seem to get past the visions of Buchart Gardens in full spring bloom.

22 hours ago, jpalbny said:

Wow, Hodgkin's in the 1950s. The treatment was barbaric.

Yup, to complicate things, Mom was 4 months pregnant when they realized what was going on.  My sister was born premature and then they started on treatments.   I was born 7 1/2 years later 🤨 and remember going to Albany Med as a little kid to "be looked over" - yeah, they didn't exactly know what they were doing with radiation, but she lived another 49 years.   Pretty sure that was a contributing factor to her eventual death with a gigantic tumor in her lung that they couldn't see thru the massive calcification from the radiation treatments ala 1950s.  That being said, she had a pretty good life, and lived it to the fullest, she was an excellent role model. 

No ma'am, this will be my first time to this part of Canada.  I'm well versed with Montreal & Toronto, as that's where my inlaws are.  This past September, I got to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  I'll have all the Canadian provences ticked off before I get the US states, to be fair there are a lot more states.  Oh, I will click off one of our more remote states, yay me!  That leaves only 19 more to go.  This is a cool trip we're both looking forward to.  Next year will probably be further out, as we're planning on travelling with his siblings, i think the consensus is the Mediterranean since none of them have been there yet (that was our first cruise)

Lois, you are entitled to feel how you feel.  Be grateful that you are going thru this now, as opposed to 40 years ago, over even 10 years ago.  The survival rates are so much higher than they were.  My mom had BC in the late 1990s, and she said it was by far the easiest treatments compared to Hodgkin's in the 1950s, Uterine in the 1960s, Stomach in the 1970s (somehow she took the 1980s off).  You are very lucky, but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with.  I consider myself extremely lucky, as my uncle had the exact same thing I just went thru in 1963, his outcome was not as good as mine.  I'm trying to convince my siblings to get tested, since there is a possibility it's a genetic thing, as I had none of the common triggers for this (high blood pressure, smoker, head injury, etc).  You do the best you can do, and roll with the things you can not change, and look forward to the next vacation 😀.

All those who have done Canadian Rockies, what is your #1 do not miss?  I am personally thrilled that I will have an opportunity to see Buchart Gardens in Victoria before the train adventure, I'm all about the plants.  Jeremy has been to Vancouver before, so we figure the 2 1/2 days we have between flight in, embarkation, debarkation should be enough to see what we want to.   We'll be hitting Jasper, Lake Louise, Banff, and have a half day to spare for Calgary.  Any & all recommendations are appreciated.

12 hours ago, jpalbny said:

 

That's a place I'd rather not be! My last stint there was in 1997 but that was on the right side of the doctor's station (meaning, I was there as an employee, not a patient!). You probably met a bunch of my colleagues; hope they treated you well, and very glad to hear that you are on the mend!

I was in the neuro-icu (ruptured aneurysm that the urgent care first diagnosed as the flu, then two weeks later as migraines). I honestly was in the best place for this kind of issue, unfortunately I don't remember some of it.  The docs were great, the nurses and aides were greater.  Well cared for, and they put up with my inability to stay in bed and do what I was told, bless their hearts. Happily, I was discharged to home, no rehab, and on our way out, they wished Jeremy luck in taking care of me!  Sarcasm?  He and the poodle pup have done an amazing job, I am thankful.   Only 4 1/2 more months before I am allowed to drive!

13 hours ago, mysty said:

Great news Jan!  Enjoy the hell out of your May adventure!

Oh I  plan on it!!!!

On 2/11/2020 at 5:21 PM, jpalbny said:

Welcome back from us as well, Jan. Happy to see you here at the Cooler!

Thanks JP & Chris.  I was luxuriating at the Albany Med ICU for 3 weeks, very happy to be home, not thrilled with the haircut I ended up with .... it's a bit cold to be sporting a Sinead O'Connor.  Happily, I was given an official clearance to travel for our May adventure - 4 days before final payment is due.   What can I say, we live on the edge 🤣